Powell fires back in debate over GOP's future

In this photo provided by CBS News, former Secretary of State General Colin Powell appears on the CBS talk show "Face the Nation," Sunday, May 24, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/CBS News, Karin Cooper)
— AP

In this photo provided by CBS News, former Secretary of State General Colin Powell appears on the CBS talk show "Face the Nation," Sunday, May 24, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/CBS News, Karin Cooper)
/ AP

WASHINGTON 
Moderate Republicans to conservative Republicans: Turn down the volume – especially on Rush Limbaugh – and open your minds. The party's future might be at stake.

Such warnings about the GOP's right wing, along with finger wagging about a "shrill" and "judgmental" tone, marked the moderate response in the latest back-and-forth within the Republican Party.

Colin Powell and Tom Ridge argued on television's Sunday talk shows that conservatives are steering the GOP too far to the right and not listening to other views within the party. Newt Gingrich, seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2012, agreed about broadening the base while political guru Karl Rove challenged Powell to lay out his vision and "back it up" by helping elect Republicans.

"I believe we should build on the base because the nation needs two parties, two parties debating each other," said Powell, the nation's top military officer under President George H.W. Bush and secretary of state for President George W. Bush.

"But what we have to do is debate and define who we are and what we are and not just listen to dictates that come down from the right wing of the party," he said.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Limbaugh, the king of talk radio, have openly mocked Powell as a Republican in name only, citing his endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in last year's presidential race.

Powell reaffirmed that he is a solid Republican and said the GOP must be more inclusive or risk giving Democrats and independents the chance to scoop up disaffected moderate Republicans. He detailed his presidential voting history – yes to GOP nominees Ronald Reagan through the younger Bush, but yes also to Democrats John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter.

"If we don't reach out more, the party is going to be sitting on a very, very narrow base. You can only do two things with a base. You can sit on it and watch the world go by, or you can build on the base," Powell said.

Fellow GOP moderate Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor and homeland security secretary under George W. Bush, said if the GOP wants "to restore itself, not as a regional party, but as a national party, we have to be far less judgmental about disagreements within the party and far more judgmental about our disagreement with our friends on the other side of the aisle."

Gingrich, the former House speaker, insisted he didn't want to pick a fight with Cheney. But he offered this advice: "I think Republicans are going to be very foolish if they run around deciding they're going to see how much they can purge us down to the smallest possible base."

Cheney, defense secretary when Powell was Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman during the Gulf War in 1991, has made clear that he would rather follow broadcaster Limbaugh than Powell into political battle over the GOP's future. "I didn't know he was still a Republican," Cheney said in a television interview two weeks ago.